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Monday, 28 March 2016

Group of volunteers of the Armenian Progressive Youth (APY) NGO made this short video on LGBT rights.

Here is the description of the video, as posted on YouTube: “Protection of human rights concerns the whole society! Everything that is related to society concerns you too. Armenia without discrimination is good for everyone! Check out our new video on LGBT rights in Armenia!

Says Ester Violante, volunteer of APY NGO, who produced this video:"In Armenia the struggle of LGBTI people is quite hard: there are a lot of prejudices. Those prejudices bring fear, and fear brings violence. We must stop this vicious circle with knowledge. [...] I want to show that there is no difference between “them” and “us”, because love means love!"

Good to see that the Armenian Progressive Youth stands true to its name in embracing equality and tackling discrimination.

Tuesday, 8 March 2016

“Women are different” - this was the main slogan Armenia’s Feminist Platform group chose to mark International Women’s Day.

The invitation to join the march was for everyone regardless of age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, whether local or foreigner, from village or city, to “celebrate different ways of being a woman”.

Not every day you see such a public celebration of diversity - for real (!) - in Armenia capital Yerevan, especially inclusive of LGBT people.

And yes, love this #LoveWins and some other T-shirts spotted during the march.

I noticed one with “We are unstoppable” too.

Of course, as Epress.am reports, not everyone were happy to see such march in the heart of Yerevan:

Most passersby reacted positively to the march and showed interest in what they heard and read. Some people, however, mostly young males, were visibly aggravated by the march and even stopped to inform the marchers that such public actions “are shameful and ugly phenomena.”

“One might think that women’s rights in this country are totally violated. Who says women have no rights? Sure they do, but that doesn’t mean I should take posters and start protecting people’s rights,” Epress.am reporters overheard one of the young men saying to a female marcher.
“These people have the same rights as anyone else. They have the right to freedom of assembly. Besides, the law might provide for equal rights between men and women, but it’s on paper only,” the girl replied.

The young man was not convinced and proceeded to complain that the marchers were “advocating homosexuality, and that’s not normal.” “I don’t care what they do among themselves, but let them not take to the streets and preach it. They have no right to a family,” he said, adding that “it’s like allowing people to marry animals if they want to.”